The spatial segregation and isolation of the elderly are important to their own personal satisfaction, and to the various social service programs that serve them. In addition, spatial concentration of the elderly plays a role in determining intra-neighborhood heterogeneity and inter-generational contact, can affect the neighborhood transition process by creating clusters of available housing, and may have implications for the community as a whole by structuring support for age- related community services such as schools, libraries, daycare centers, etc. The proposed research will use census tract data from the 1970, 1980 and 1990 decennial censuses to investigate issues related to the spatial location of the elderly in metropolitan areas in the U.S. First, it will calculate the segregation and neighborhood isolation of the total population aged 65 +. and then break the population down into non- Hispanic white, non-Hispanic black, Asian and Hispanic groups and calculate their segregation from non-Hispanic whites and from each other. Trends in the segregation of these race/elderly groups will be measured over time, from 1970-1990. Second, within each of the four race/ethnic groups, the 1990 segregation of the elderly by immigrant and poverty status will be calculated to show how spatial isolation varies within these groups. Third, for a small sample of metropolitan areas where the elderly and immigrant elderly are concentrated, the project will calculate profiles of the neighborhood environments of these different groups of elderly, estimate the role of the elderly in neighborhood race/ethnic and socioeconomic status transitions, with particular emphasis on racial/ethnic differences in these effects, and create maps of the elderly location and their neighborhoods.